Meet The Writer: Alan Kelly

5052011

What first attracted you to horror writing?

I guess wandering around as a child and being allowed to watch as many horror films as possible instilled in me a love of horror. My brother would bring home films like Return of the Living Dead, The Wicker Man, Nightmare on Elm Street, et al and we’d watch one after another. He also bought me tons of books which I devoured. I guess growing up gay in such a small place inevitably led me to outsider fiction – Darcey Steinke, Laura Albert, Harry Crews, Amra Brooks, Scott Heim, Poppy Z Brite, Matthew Stokoe, Helen Walsh, Laura Hird and of course horror, noir and hardboiled.

I always wrote as a child but put down the pen for a while before picking it back up again when I studied journalism. The one novel that resonates with me, the first one I remember really getting me down to the bone was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I think it is still my favourite book. It made me want to be a writer! Well that and Elvira!